OLTL’s Florencia Lozano on Her Current Todd: “Trevor Does Well When He’s Challenged”

All My Todds kicks off this May Sweeps on One Life to Live and the Two Mr. Mannings' leading ladies are sounding off in this week's issue of Soap Opera Digest. While Kassie DePaiva (Blair) is pumped about the "endless possibilities for the story", with Roger Howarth coming back, Florencia Lozano (Tea)is excited that current Todd Trevor St. John will be, well…excited!

"I think it's fantastic," she says. "Trevor does well when he's challenged. It's one of those things where if he doesn't have someone fun to play with, he gets bored and we don't want to see him bored. We like to see him excited. And Roger, he plays it so fantasically, so I'm like, 'Yah!' I love it."

For more from DePaiva, Lozano and OLTL head writer Ron Carlivati on the story, pick up this week's Soap Opera Digest.

26 Responses

Giogio, OLTL has nine months of story left, that’s the length of a primetime TV season, multiplied by five episodes a week. We’re going to keep supporting the show and talking about the storylines right up into the point where Viki and Dorian fade to black.

[quote=Jamey Giddens]Giogio, OLTL has nine months of story left, that’s the length of a primetime TV season, multiplied by five episodes a week. We’re going to keep supporting the show and talking about the storylines right up into the point where Viki and Dorian fade to black.[/quote]

THANK YOU, Jamey. You took the words right outta my mouth. I can’t wait to watch this delicious soapiness!

It’s interesting that she says that. I always feel he brings it or at least I am enthralled when he’s onscreen, but I’ve read or heard that some folks thinks he phones it in. Tyler Christopher Baker Longoria will always be the measure of someone phoning it in to me. Trevor is no where near that.

Although, I would be thoroughly insulted if I felt my scene partner was “bored” in scenes.

I agree with Florencia’s take on TSJ. He is brilliant with challenging material.
I would be excited about this story if I didnt have this fear that it might not end well for Trevor. We will see what happens.

Not crazy about actors phoning it in, even if they think the material is boring or beneath them. You would never see real pros like Jeanne Cooper, Marj Dusay, Maureen Garrett, etc., etc. doing that, even in throwaway scenes.

kintex, I agree completely with you, and I appreciate the angle from which Florencia approaches it here as well. As someone who thinks that Trevor St. John came in and made the Todd character his own by adding new degrees of subtle dimension, adding to his complexity and shades of gray, and taking him forward in a natural progression from where he originated to how such a character would develop through time and circumstance—they can toy with me to make it interesting and bring in another actor who, when he chooses to, knows how to bring it, but no part of me wants to go back in time (and I was a fan back then) and undo where TsJ has brought this character just to fit Roger back in to his ‘old skin.’ I also look at it as ‘what will this give Trevor to play with’ first and foremost, and if it impacts him and his years of work within this character in any kind of a disrespectful way—then OLTL should prepare for me to be upset in advance.

I am looking forward to what Trevor…and the incredible Trevor and Florencia combination…do with this material and I hope that it respects the love story that they’ve breathed a special brand of magic into in the last few years!

I’m sorry but I fail to see the problem or issue with Flor’s statement. I also fail to see the problem with TSJ being more inspired by fresh material. There is a difference between boredom and effort. One can consistently give 110% effort despite being bored or uninspired by some of the material or subject matter at play. I find a lot of the paper work aspects of my job boring and redundant, especially as compared with what I consider to be the more core aspects, but those less glittery and exciting tasks must be completed. My job gets 110% effort no matter how inspired I am feeling and regardless of whether I find the material boring.

However, I am happier when I am given work that inspires a passion within, which is why I treasure receiving such material. It is why I believe Flor wants Trevor to receive such material. It is human not to find everything at your place of employment inspiring but we, as human beings, work through it. Things aren’t always going to go our way. Anyone who claims otherwise or wishes to condemn others for this is only lying to himself.

I’ve never seen TSJ check out of a scene and I, for one, am not misinterpreting Flor’s words to insinuate anything of the such. She has nothing but the highest regard for Trevor, his talent and his professionalism. She has made this clear in several interviews and fan events. People need to stop nitpicking, getting their panties into a bunch and reading into things that are simply not there.

As a 25 plus year viewer, my experience dictates that it isn’t TSJ I am worried about in terms of checking out of scenes. He-who-shall-remain-nameless made that crap an Olympic sport. Don’t get me wrong, it was hella amusing at times, but I don’t think we should go there when it comes to dialing it in.

Personally, there is no way this story can be told with TSJ’s Todd not being authentic Todd without it insulting my intelligence. Unfortunately, I fear OLTL won’t be able to resist which would be a colossally poor decision. Gawd, I can just imagine the bad camp and sci-fi necessary to pull it off. We’ll be ABC’s version of Passions in not time. *shudders* Definitely not looking forward to this hot mess of a story.

I going to try and hang in there for as long as Trevor and/or Flor are on the show but outlook not so good right now.

I’m sorry but I fail to see the problem or issue with Flor’s statement. I also fail to see the problem with TSJ being more inspired by fresh material. There is a difference between boredom and effort. One can consistently give 110% effort despite being bored or uninspired by some of the material or subject material at play. I find a lot of the paper work aspects of my job boring and redundant, especially as compared with what I consider to be the more core aspects, but those less glittery and exciting tasks must be completed. My job gets 110% effort no matter how inspired I am feeling and regardless of whether I find the material boring.

However, I am happier when I am given work that inspires a passion within, which is why I treasure receiving such material. It is why I believe Flor wants Trevor to receive such material. It is human not to find everything at your place of employment inspiring but we, as human beings, work through it. Things aren’t always going to go our way. Anyone who claims otherwise or wishes to condemn others for this is only lying to themselves.

I’ve never seen TSJ check out of a scene and I, for one, am not misinterpreting Flor’s words to insinuate anything of the such. She has nothing but the highest regard for Trevor, his talent and his professionalism. She has made this clear in several interviews and fan events. People need to stop nitpicking, getting their panties into a bunch and reading into things that are simply not there.

As a 25 plus year viewer, my experience dictates that it isn’t TSJ I am worried about in terms of checking out of scenes. He-who-shall-remain-nameless made that crap an Olympic sport. Don’t get me wrong, it was hella amusing at times, but I don’t think we should go there when it comes to dialing it in.

Personally, there is no way this story can be told with TSJ’s Todd not being authentic Todd without it insulting my intelligence. Unfortunately, I fear OLTL won’t be able to resist which would be a colossally poor decision. Gawd, I can just imagine the bad camp and sci-fi necessary to pull it off. We’ll be ABC’s version of Passions in not time. *shudders* Definitely not looking forward to this hot mess of a story.

I going to try and hang in there for as long as Trevor and/or Flor are on the show but outlook not so good right now
—————————————————————————

Loved what you wrote and I think you are probably right. I doubt she meant it the way some are taking it that he is playing the scenes bored. I think its just a coincidence that their has been a few people on DC have mentioned that Trevor hasn’t been as into the material since the end of 2009 (I believe that’s when most people seem to think it started.) till present as he was from 2003- mid 2009 when he was on fire all the time.

I agree with some that there has been a change since the end of 2009 until now but unlike most of the people who have blamed it completely on Trevor I must take Ron C. to task for that. I am a huge fan of his but one of the things that I realized the last couple of years in the way he writes a few characters especially Todd is that when he seems lost on what to do with a character he seems to write the characters a little manic. I’m sure i am not the only one who noticed this about Todd, Blair, Dorian, and Cole to name a few.
Todd changes from nice, sociopath, clown, romantic, funny, sweet, bored (sometimes it is in the actual dialog for Todd to be bored.), and just an absolute monster and jerk all within a couple of weeks. I don’t care who the actor is if the character no longer has any definition to it there isn’t much he can do.
As I was saying before at the end of 2009 which from what I have seen in past discussions is when people felt Trevor became bored with the material, Todd had found out Dani was his kid and she wanted nothing to do with him. So what did Todd Manning do about it? Cook up a scheme to win her over? Nope. Lash out at everyone? Nope. He was for the most part put on the back burner for a few months and was only on every once and a while to literally mope around and complain to Blair, Starr, Viki, and Tea about Dani not wanting him in her life.
Then they had the Who pushed Marty down the stairs story which put Todd back on the front burner. So to make the audience suspect it could have been Todd the writers out of nowhere have Todd go batshit crazy on Cole, Marty, and Tea. To trick the audience into thinking it could be Todd (Like anyone actually thought it was him.) Just like the year before when Todd was being cruel to Blair on the phone so when she was stabbed everyone would suspect Todd. So they had Todd show no concern and have all these close ups on his face that make him look like the culprit.
Then after Tea comes back from the dead Todd all of a sudden morphs into psycho Todd again, this time against Starr and Cole 2.0 aka Nate and Dani.

There’s plenty of other good examples but this comment is already way too long lol. so I will just say maybe we are pointing the fingers at the wrong person. Not to say that Trevor has been amazing but I have never seen him do a bad job of acting, although I will admit there have been some days in the past couple of years were he has seemed bored and confused with the material, I just think the writers deserve a big portion of the responsibility.

[quote=gslam][quote=Jamey Giddens]Giogio, OLTL has nine months of story left, that’s the length of a primetime TV season, multiplied by five episodes a week. We’re going to keep supporting the show and talking about the storylines right up into the point where Viki and Dorian fade to black.[/quote]

THANK YOU, Jamey. You took the words right outta my mouth. I can’t wait to watch this delicious soapiness![/quote]

[quote=Snugglebug]I’m sorry but I fail to see the problem or issue with Flor’s statement. I also fail to see the problem with TSJ being more inspired by fresh material. There is a difference between boredom and effort. One can consistently give 110% effort despite being bored or uninspired by some of the material or subject matter at play. I find a lot of the paper work aspects of my job boring and redundant, especially as compared with what I consider to be the more core aspects, but those less glittery and exciting tasks must be completed. My job gets 110% effort no matter how inspired I am feeling and regardless of whether I find the material boring.However, I am happier when I am given work that inspires a passion within, which is why I treasure receiving such material. It is why I believe Flor wants Trevor to receive such material. It is human not to find everything at your place of employment inspiring but we, as human beings, work through it. Things aren’t always going to go our way. Anyone who claims otherwise or wishes to condemn others for this is only lying to himself.
I’ve never seen TSJ check out of a scene and I, for one, am not misinterpreting Flor’s words to insinuate anything of the such. She has nothing but the highest regard for Trevor, his talent and his professionalism. She has made this clear in several interviews and fan events. People need to stop nitpicking, getting their panties into a bunch and reading into things that are simply not there.[/quote]

Great post, I share your understanding of Florencia’s comment so I did not have an issue it.

I have mixed feelings about Florencia’s statements. On one hand, I feel that soap actors are ALWAYS supposed to give 100%, considering how well they are compensated for their services, so saying that Trevor doesn’t do as well when he gets bored makes him sound like a prima-donna (which is the WORST kind of actor, as far as I’m concerned!) and it also makes him sound ungrateful to have a job.

I don’t believe that Trevor is EITHER of these things. And I have always enjoyed him as an actor. I believe that he shines most of the time, even when he’s not being “challenged,” or when he doesn’t have a well-written storyline.

I feel that ANY working actor who is drawing a paycheck in today’s rough economy where reality TV is taking over should be “EXCITED” to be working…………..

But off my soapbox, I go.

I love Florencia and Trevor and I am going to make more of a concerted effort to watch OLTL more now that it’s going off into the wild blue yonder. And I encourage the rest of us to do the same. Even if it can’t be saved, at least try to support it in its last days and continue to support the genre as a whole.

I think something went out of him when Renee Goldsberry was DONE WRONG BY Frogs. I mean FRONS. Trevor is a very principle guy. Wrong is wrong! Anyway, I’ve never seen anything but scintillation from him. I love Trevor St John!

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